NORRISTOWN — A judge has urged the Pennsylvania Superior Court to uphold the 24- to 50-year prison term he imposed against a “cold and calculating” Lower Providence photographer responsible for killing a Canadian adult film actress.

“As we stated on the record, we believe that a lesser sentence would have seriously depreciated the conduct engaged in by defendant,” Montgomery County Judge William T. Nicholas wrote in his response to the appeal filed by Anthony J. Frederick, who admitted stabbing Natel King to death over an argument about money.

Frederick, 48, of the 1100 block of Bayless Place, has appealed his sentence to the Superior Court, alleging the punishment was excessive and that the judge abused his discretion by imposing consecutive sentences against Frederick for other crimes, including abuse of corpse and possession of an instrument of crime.

Now that Frederick has taken his case to the state court, Nicholas, who previously turned down Frederick’s request to modify the sentence, is required by law to file an opinion explaining why the punishment should be upheld.

In February, Frederick pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime, lying to authorities, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy.

In July, Nicholas sentenced Frederick to the maximum 20- to 40-year sentence for third-degree murder. The judge also sentenced Freder-ick to an additional one- to four-year sentence on possession of an instrument of crime and additional one- to two-year sentences on charges of abuse of corpse, lying to police and conspiracy. All of those sentences are to be served consecutively to the sentence for third-degree murder.

Frederick, arguing that the consecutive sentences were excessive, is challenging the judge’s discretion in ordering that each of the sentences be served consecutively.

Frederick believes he should have been sentenced to no more than four months in prison for abuse of corpse.

However, Nicholas said the one- to two-year sentence was appropriate because Frederick’s actions did not consist simply of treating a cadaver in a way that would offend normal sensibilities.

“(Frederick), in order to conceal his crime, in a cold and calculating fashion, wrapped his victim’s body in photographer’s backdrops — a bondage device still hanging from her head — placed the body in the trunk of his car, drove to an isolated location and dumped the body over an embankment, leaving it to rot,” Nicholas wrote, adding King’s body was left to decompose for three weeks and her family was deprived of the chance to give her a decent burial.

For the charge of lying to police, Frederick believes he should have been sentenced to no more than three months in prison.

Nicholas responded that while defendants often lie to police, Frederick’s “cold and calculated false statements” resulted in the expenditure of substantial investigative resources while King’s body lay decomposing along River Road in Whitemarsh for several weeks until it was discovered by a passerby.

King was a tall, blonde 23-year-old Canadian college student who posed for adult entertainment photos and films under the name of “Taylor Sumers” to earn money for school.

She was last heard from on Feb. 29, 2004, when she visited the studio that Frederick leased in the 100 block of West Third Street, Conshohocken. King’s decaying, naked body was found on March 23, 2004, in Whitemarsh.

Frederick, at his sentencing hearing, maintained that King first attacked him with the knife after he told her he did not have the $900 to pay her for the photo shoot she completed.

The judge indicated he didn’t buy Frederick’s excuse and he also questioned the sincerity of Frederick’s expression of remorse.